ALL starters are now at the barrier for local government elections in Bathurst Regional Council, Oberon, Blayney, Orange and Cabonne with plenty of choices for voters in each case.

STREAM OF THOUGHT: This eye-catching art featuring Belted Galloway heifers enjoying a clear running stream is the work of local artist Lynne Seaman.

The amalgamation proposals that Oberon ratepayers fought so hard against are now just a nasty memory and it’s time to elect a council that will guide the shire for many years.

Of particular interest is the election of a new mayor of Orange by popular vote. If this process were in place for the other councils in our area, we can only guess at the mayoral result.

The elections will bring some new faces to council meeting tables and we must congratulate every candidate for having the guts to put their name forward.

To commit to giving much of your time to your local community for the next three years is deserving of praise.

After being involved in a few public bodies, my greatest learning curve has been: if a staff member threatens to resign from a position, it’s always best in the long run to accept the resignation and get on with the business at hand.

Tough times

SEPTEMBER has arrived without the hoped-for spring rains and pastures are almost non-existent on many properties.

After a really cold winter with mostly clear skies and a succession of heavy frosts we are now hearing reports of some very light wool cuts and pretty light sheep coming down the chute.

Summer croppers away to the morth must be dismayed to realise that moisture profiles on long fallowed paddocks are only reading 20 to 30 per cent.

This comes on top of many winter cereal crops being baled or fed to livestock.

Questions are constantly being asked of the likelihood of a real seasonal break to follow our rainless winter.

Long-term producers on the Monaro plain to the south of Cooma have always been adamant that their best seasons follow excellent snowfalls in the Snowies.

Recent reports tell us of this winter snow as being some of the heaviest in living memory.

At this stage we will accept any news that seems positive and hope like hell.

General rain in September/October will be most welcome.

Get well, Pete

A CHEERIO call to Bathurst master painter Peter Johnson who has been off song for several weeks.

Among the world’s great painters such as da Vinci, Picasso and Namatjira, Bathurst’s very own Pete must stand tall.

We hope to see his little white cap back at the worksite very soon.

New arrivals

Jake and Liam Schofield at Sunny Corner are now sharing their home with their brand new twin sister and brother, Evelyn and Chaz.

This little crew are the family of Olivia and Chris Schofield who operate a busy rural contract service across our Tablelands.

Reading the books

A HEADS up to veteran retired shearer Jack Dolbel at Lyndhurst.

Mark Ryan at Georges Plains tells me that he and Jack shore for the late Ted Whiteman in the Riverina in the early 1950s.

We hope Mr and Mrs Dolbel enjoyed the field day books from the Peppin Heritage Centre, Deniliquin.

Special surprise

RURAL media is currently carrying ads for a Special Sale of 10,000 store sheep at Hillston, NSW.

I would expect to read of a 100pc Dorper and Damara listing in that part of our state, but instead was pleasantly surprised to read details of well-bred merinos, mainly breeding ewes.

With solid returns from wool and sheep meat we question if there will be a genuine return to the merino industry, or whether a generation has seen too many industry upsets to ever want to be involved.

There are good numbers of young shearers who have entered the industry in recent years who are capable and willing to earn a very good living as professional tradesmen and this promises a reliable work force for the future.​

Laugh lines

DAD and Mum were in a hassle at Mascot airport as she had brought reams of luggage.

“We should have brought the bloody piano, too,” George called out.

“No need to be sarcastic, George,” was her reply.

“I’m not being smart, love,” he said. “I’ve left the tickets on the piano.”

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THE old shearer had a 60 inch television that had stopped working and the repair man took six minutes to replace the fuse and charged an $80 call-out fee.

“I’m a shearer and I can never make that sort of money,” he complained.

“Neither could I when I was a shearer,” he was told.

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SHE said that he was so cunning he could steal the harness off a nightmare.